Posted by This year is the 70 Years Anniversary of the introduction of the Memovox. So I thought we should have a closer look at the logo and slogans that Jaeger-LeCoultre used for the early Memovox.
From the very beginning at the introduction at the 1950 Basel Watch Fair, Jaeger-LeCoultre chose to call it “Alarm Wrist Watch”. Most likely to make it clear to the market what it really was…
But already the same year the name Memovox was introduced here in Europe: the name and this special font was used during the 1950’s in most documents.
The name Memovox comes from the Latin words “Memo” – memory and “Vox” – voice, Memovox – the voice of your memory.
During the same decade in the U.S. market, the name “Wrist-Alarm” was most commonly used. Several other names was used as well and it wasn’t until the 1960’s the Memovox or the Memodate name was really established in the U.S. market.
Not only did Jaeger-LeCoultre use a special logo for the Memovox, they also used a slogan which can be seen in many European documents – Reminds – Warns – Awakens!
From old documents one can see that Switzerland had a rather centralised publishing strategy here in Europe, with the exceptions for a few countries like France and the U.K. which were more independent in their communication and did not follow the same pattern as most European countries…
Here are examples of Swiss and Swedish document on the subject – Swedish: “Påminner – Manar – Väcker“
And here are another version including Spanish: “Recuerda – Avisa – Despierta“
Personally I find the early Memovox advertisement campaigns very impressive – not only did Jaeger-LeCoultre have a name, logo and a slogan for these new watches, they used the Alarm Triangle as a graphic element in their ads as well.
For you who are familiar with the early Memovox know that the alarm indicator on the alarm disk is an equilateral triangle.
Here are T.W.O examples of this including the German: “Erinnert – Mahnt – Weckt“
Rather brilliant as the arrow sign is often used as a symbol of a of positive energy and direction! Here another example including the French: “Rappelle – Avertit – Réveille“
Let’s stay on the early Memovox – previously I have shown you one of the early Memovox watch holders, matched with the very first Memovox reference 3150.
The second Memovox reference was the 3151, the big difference between these being the lugs:
Same as for documents and advertisements, watch holders existed in different languages as well – “Reminds – Awakens -Warns“:
The Spanish version I showed you earlier, I had for years, this English version is a new addition – next time I have both the 3150 and the 3151 at home I should make a matching pair shot: love these kind of accessories!
One thing I find very interesting is that different from the Futurematic which co-existed with the Memovox during the 1950’s, neither the Memovox logo, nor the slogans “Reminds – Awakens -Warns” were ever used on the dials of these early Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox.
In the U.S. market during the 1950’s, “Wrist-Alarm” was often used on the dials but it wasn’t until the introduction of the automatic Memovox references there was a Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox with more text than brand name and “Swiss Made” printed on the dial!
In 1957 when the Memovox with automatic movement was introduced (Calibre 815), so was the Memovox Automatic logo:
A new generation of Memovox was born… Memovox Automatic!
When going into the 1960’s, the strong branding of the Memovox fades… A topic I will return to in another report. Stay tuned!
